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Thursday, February 1, 2018

FBI director opposes release of classified GOP memo

FBI Director Christopher Wray told the White House
he opposes release of a classified Republican memo alleging bias at the FBI and
Justice Department because it contains inaccurate information and paints a
false narrative, according to a person familiar with the matter, reported Bloomberg .

The FBI came close to publicly opposing the memo’s
release, saying in a statement Wednesday that it has “grave concerns about
material omissions of fact that fundamentally impact the memo’s accuracy.”

But House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes called
the objections from the FBI and the Justice Department “spurious” and
criticized officials for “stonewalling” the panel.

“It’s clear that top officials used unverified
information in a court document to fuel a counter-intelligence investigation
during an American political campaign,” the California Republican said
Wednesday in a statement. “Once the truth gets out, we can begin taking steps
to ensure our intelligence agencies and courts are never misused like this
again.”

The spat comes amid a new report from CNN that
President Donald Trump asked Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein in December
for an update on Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe and whether Rosenstein
was “on my team.” Rosenstein oversees Mueller’s probe into possible collusion
between Trump’s campaign and Russia.

The memo on actions early in the probe of Russian
meddling in the 2016 campaign is being reviewed by “our national security
lawyers in the White House,” who are “slicing and dicing it,” White House Chief
of Staff John Kelly said Wednesday on Fox News Radio. But he left little doubt
about the outcome, saying the disputed memo will be released “pretty quick, I
think, and the whole world can see it.”

About Matt

An analysis of crime and punishment from the perspective of a former prosecutor and current criminal justice practitioner.
The views expressed on this blog are solely those of the author and do not reflect the opinions or postions of any county, state or federal agency.